


Serpent's Tongue

by KaedeRavensdale



Series: The Riddle of Paradis [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: 'Wild Magic', Alternate Universes, Because magic solves problems like that kind of easily, Dark Mark, Eren and Levi are Wizards, Eren calls his Titan 'Rogue', Established Relationship, Gryffindor!Eren, Harry Potter! AU - Freeform, Kind of OC but it's purposeful for sake of certain headcanons, Languages and Language Barriers (to a point), M/M, Parseltongue, Set up as if AoT ended with the reclaimation of Wall Maria, Slytherin!Levi, Time disparities, Titans were originally Magical Creatures, Yep it's another revamped old story, set during OotP
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-11 06:15:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12929256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaedeRavensdale/pseuds/KaedeRavensdale
Summary: Yanked away from a mission beyond the walls and dropped into the midst of a Death Eater meeting mere months after the Dark Lord's return Eren and Levi find themselves marooned in the unfamiliar world of Harry Potter in the midst of the chaos of a resurging war. Faced with revelations of Levi's heritage and the true origins of the Titans the pair are forced to face the dark specter of a looming question: how far can an apple roll from the tree it fell from?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so I definitely like this version better than the old one. I'll be deleting the old version at some point around the new year to give anyone who might want to jump over to this one time to do so. Enjoy.
> 
> A brief explanation of head canons mentioned in tags can be found at end.
> 
> Ou Seshiel - You're Choice

“Alright brat, time to wake up.”

I groaned and rolled over, burying my face in the pillow that I was nearest to. His pillow. Which was understandable since this was his side of the bed that I was now lying on. It was warm from when it had been occupied not all that long ago and smelled like him: bleach and tea and that amazing thing which was particular to Levi. That thing which Rogue had long ago classified as ‘mate smell’, which wasn’t entirely off base. I mean, we were together. Had been for the better part of three years. Were out about it, at least to the Legion-not so much out to the rest of the world since we didn’t need the Military Police fucks to swoop in with the excuse that his ability to put me down if need be was compromised by our relationship’ and steal me away to be dissected or something else equally inhumane and painful.

I’d never mentioned my Titan’s opinion on the matter because, quite simply, I doubted Levi would be very pleased to have me start referring to him as my ‘mate’. Would probably say something along the lines of ‘we’re not animals, shit head’-he called everyone shit head; with him it was less the words that mattered but the tone in which he said them-and tell me to just call him my boyfriend like a normal person.

Not that either of us were ‘normal’ by any extent of the imagination. On top of the Titan Shifter shit that I’d had dropped on my after the Colossal Bastard and the Armored Dick had broken through Wall Maria I was gay and capable of…well, I suppose you could call them freakish things not that it bothered me. I enjoyed most of what I could do.

Being able to travel from one place to another in the span of seconds, no matter how far away it was, just by envisioning it was awesome despite the occasional lost limb I still managed to cause myself. And being able to duplicate bread and water for the three of us during our time living in the Rose City slums had in large part been why we’d managed to survive. But some of what I could do could be rather frightening.

For example once, as a young child, I’d lit my crib on fire.

As for Levi, he was also gay-should be fairly obvious to those of you paying attention, considering both of us were men and were together-and also capable of strange things. It wasn’t _just_ skill that let him clean as well as he did, for one thing. For another, he could talk to snakes.

Most people in the walls who heard about this fact had one of three reactions.

Reaction One: you’re an idiot if you really thing that’s true. Pull your head out of your ass and stop paying so much attention to the rumor mill.

Reaction Two: He’s crazy, but so are the rest of them. Have to be in order to be in _that_ Regiment. And having seen so much death and injury I’m not surprised; of course the trauma of it all would make him crack.

Reaction Three: Witch! Warlock! Evil! Demon! Not like us and can’t be trusted! Kill it with fire! Reeee! (Essentially the same reaction everyone had had to the realization that I could, in fact, turn into a Titan).

It was, in large part, the revelation of how alike we were which had really spring boarded our relationship out of the realm of ‘superior officer and soldier’ if a bit of a closer example of such than that which is typically considered normal and into ‘this could get us into a ridiculous amount of trouble but I don’t care because I love you’.

The potential consequences hadn’t bothered me at all because, well, to make a long story short Horse Face calls me Suicidal Bastard for a reason. And Levi had always lived by the motto of ‘the choice I’ll least regret’.

Knowing that I wasn’t something he was ashamed of, that I-some half-Titan freak of nature-was something that Humanity’s Strongest would want to even give a second glance let alone become involved with, was precisely the boost to my self-esteem and worth I’d needed. Especially after everything that had happened in that damned cave.

Smiling to myself, I breathed in another deep lungful of the raven’s smell. Rogue purring as I sifted through it, picking out the familiar notes of petrichor and wood smoke and night time.

“Eren.” Bare feet padded across the wooden floor boards with the gentle creak of old planks. The springs dipped beneath his weight before his warm hand-long lithe fingers with a number of callouses along the pads of his fingertips with a number of callouses along the pads of his fingertips and palm from the blades of our ODM gear-pressed into my back. The heel of his hand kneading into the muscle. “We have to report to Shitty Glasses in twenty minutes.”

“Only take five to get ready.” It was barely light outside and despite it being the beginning of June it was still frigid at this time of morning. Though that was much more my cold blooded Chibi’s problem than mine.

“Ou şeshiel.” Sweet Sina, he was really playing dirty; knew full well what the Snake tongue did to me. “You can either sleep for five more minutes or spy on me while I get dressed like you usually do.”

So I watch my boyfriend undress sometimes. He’s hot and I’ve seen it all before: don’t judge me. “Not fair.”

“Life’s not fair, shit head.” The weight lifted from the bed and he walked away. I sat up when I heard the old hinges on the wardrobe creak. Cracking my back with an ambitious stretch and rubbing sleep from my eyes before turning my attention to the older, slightly shorter male. He’d pulled his shirt over his head and dropped it into the hamper, revealing glorious muscles of his back and the strange mark running the length of his spine.

A fanged skull rested dead center of his shoulder blades, a serpent spilling from its gaping maw like a venomous tongue. Threading along the contours of his spine. Coiling back on itself just before it vanished below the waistband of his pants. If I stared at it for long enough the image almost seemed to move.

Catching my stare in the mirror he turned his head to look at me. “It doesn’t hurt.”

I knew immediately what he was referencing and couldn’t entirely stop my cringe. Even without having been on the receiving end of what had happened, seeing him like that had been horrifying. The stress and shock alone had almost been enough to force a shift and had Rogue roaring for the blood of whoever had dared to hurt him like that.

“When was the last time?” I asked.

It hadn’t always looked like that. The first time I’d seen the marking it had been silver. Faded like an old scar and almost impossible to make out against the pallor of his skin. Levi had explained, somewhat self-consciously, that it had been a marking he’d always had. A birthmark, perhaps, or else the result of some sick fuck in the underground deciding to get ‘artsy’ with their knife when he was still too young to remember properly.

“A few days ago.” The hesitance before he’d admitted as much gave away how reluctant he’d been to admit it.

I hadn’t been the only one alarmed when the thing had suddenly turned black and, in the middle of the end of the week cleaning, Levi had collapsed in agony. That he been six months ago, now. We’d yet to even begun to figure out why, but I knew that it still bothered him from time to time. Perhaps not as intensely as the first time, but still.

In my eyes, any unnecessary pain inflicted on those I cared about was a slight classifiable as nothing short of unforgiveable.

Reaching where he stood in front of the open wardrobe I rested my hand against his back. Running my fingers lightly down the serpent’s body, well aware of just how sensitive it was. He shuddered and stepped closer. Relaxing into the comfort of my warm arms and low purring for a moment before shoving my uniform into my hands.

“Keep this up and we won’t have time for tea before we go.” He stepped away from me and resumed changing into his uniform. Button up shirt. Then pants. Then jacket. Straps. Then finally his cravat. “Your buttons are uneven, brat. Did you do that on purpose?”

“No.” Maybe.

“Child.” He fixed it for me anyway, then grabbed my wrist and hauled me out of what had all but officially become our bedroom. A pot of tea and plate of toast, likely made at some point between the moment he’d woken up and when he’d gone to rouse me.

We ate and drank quickly-though were both mindful of crumbs; what can I say, Lance Corporal Cleaning Fairy might have been rubbing off on me just a little-and rushed to put away the dishes.

“We’re going to be late.” Levi said.

“No we aren’t.” With Hanji’s office clearly in mind and not giving him a chance to ask, I gently took his hand and turned on the spot.

There was a loud crack followed by the familiar discomfort of being squeezed through a tube and then we were standing in the middle of Hanji’s office. Well…sitting. Close enough. Levi was straddling my lap, looking equal parts bewildered and peeved and I was sitting on something much too warm to be the floor.

“Get off me, Gayger!” Oh. So that was what we’d landed on.

“Sorry, Horseface.” I helped the raven up before standing myself. “It might be less painful in the future if you learn to properly take a rider.”

He wasn’t the total ass he used to be. As a matter of fact, shock of all shocks, by this point in our lives we’d been through so much shit both together and in general that we actually considered ourselves friends.

“I wouldn’t want your Titan ass on me either way.” He shot back without any vitriol at all, nothing more severe than mild annoyance visible in his amber eyes.

“Good.” Levi shot him a rather baleful glance as he tugged me behind him. “Because this Titan’s ass is mine and I don’t share. Especially not with horses.” Mikasa and Armin both chuckled and Jean made a point of giving him a playful salute.

“I never thought I’d live to see the day this happened, Shorty.” Hanji pushed her smudged glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “Eren’s really defanged you.”

“Tch!” Was the fairly typical, taciturn response. It was so incredibly Levi-like and made me smile. “Are you going to tell us what the hell it is you expect us to be doing or were we woken up at ass crack dawn just to stand around in your biohazard of an office?

“What’s wrong, Shorty? Did you not sleep well because you and Eren stayed up to late last night? Or maybe you’re just unhappy because you two _didn’t_ do it last night to make sure you could get up in time?” she was entirely unabashed by either his warning glare or the fact that I was red to my ears. “Having the two of you here is like having a pair of rabbits. And with how thin some of these are-.”

“Shit head!” Levi snarled, finally having had enough. “The mission!”

Hanji huffed and sat back in her chair. “Maria Levi, you’re no fun.”

“I disagree.” I snickered, yelping when he pinched me. “Hey!”

“Well, I guess I should tell you all why I called you in here before Chibi here,” wait a minute, that was _my_ nickname for him, “blows a gasket. We haven’t seen Titans near the walls in almost a year and if any of them do still exist there’s reason to think they’re on the brink of extinction.”

“Good.” The raven grunted vindictively, folding his arms over his chest. Everyone else in the room, myself included, nodded in agreement.

“Levi, do I need to remind you of the fact that your oh so precious ‘brat’ is also a Titan?”

“Apples and oranges! Moving on!”

He didn’t resist when I pulled him back against my chest, not losing the dead pan expression he’d all but become famous for. Smirking, I dropped my face into his hair.

“Well, Queen Historia wants to know if it’s safe for Humanity to move beyond the walls again and it’s been decided that the best way to determine the answer to that question would be to send out a small scouting party to investigate the nearest village past the gate of Shiganshina.” She said. “And since there’s still a risk of Titans wandering around out there, however small, it was determined our best chance at success would be had sending out the best. As I’m sure you’re all well aware, that means you.”

“Humanity’s Strongest, Humanity’s Second Strongest, Humanity’s Hope, the Colossal Coconut and Fluttershy?” he deadpanned. I couldn’t stop myself from dissolving into laughter when I heard Jean mutter ‘why am I Fluttershy? Even ‘Horse Face’ is better than that!’ “When are we expected to leave?”

“They’re raising the gate in just under an hour, Levi.” She said.

“Better get moving then.” He seized my wrist again and hauled me after him towards the office door. “Come on, brats. No point wasting time.”

I wasn’t released until we reached the stables. Mikasa bumped shoulders with me as we both moved to collect bridles for our horses, a smile on her face which left the relation between them undeniable.

“I don’t care if the two of you would rather elope and free the country once all of this is over rather than have a traditional wedding,” she said, “but I’d better be there for it.”

And the blush was back again, helped along by Armin and Jean making similar statements of ‘me too’ from the stalls of their own horses as they worked to coax them out into the cold morning air.

“It’ll be a while.” I told her, managing to lead the chestnut mare out into the open and pulling myself up onto her back. “After all this shit with Marley is resolved and we don’t have to worry about them anymore. Leaving the country, never looking back, it sounds nice. Like a new start. But what about you and Armin?”

Mikasa looked over at me from astride her own smoky mount. “We’d miss you, but we’d move on. As long as you’re happy wherever you end up that’s good enough for us. We only want what’s best for you and don’t want to be responsible for holding you back for our sake.” She said. “You deserve that ‘new start’ Eren, after everything you’ve done for others. You deserve to be able to walk down the street without having people around who still look at you like you’re a monster.”

“Whatever we end up doing will be up to Levi.” I turned my eyes back to the stable in time to see him emerge leading a black stallion. “I’m not sure what all he has that would keep him here. If he’d want to stay. And I’m not going to force him to leave.”

“The only thing in this entire God forsaken world that matters to me is you, Eren.” I hadn’t realized he’d been able to hear me from this distance. Levi regarded us with grey eyes as his trotted over; to most they’d have appeared flat and disinterested but I knew him well enough to detect the softness hidden inside as well as the slight uptick of his lips. “Four Eyes is annoying, Sniffer and Eyebrows have both already fucked off and died, and as fond as I may have become of the lot of you brats were you to fuck off too I’d live. All I need to exist in some state of marginal happiness is you.”

Having him come out with something so blatantly affectionate-at least by Levi standards-so publicly made a smile stretch so wide across my face that it started to hurt.

“Careful, Eren,” Armin called, “your face could freeze that way.”

“Not as if the brat could look any dumber.”

“Hey!”

“Having said all that mushy shit, we should be heading towards the damn gate.” He prodded his horse into motion. “We can save the planning for the venue and the food and who the shitting hell is going to propose to who and where for after we get back.”

“I vote for Jaeger to be the one to wear the dress.” Jean piped up ever so helpfully.

“Jean, there might not even _be_ a dress!” Armin pointed out.

“I’d wear it if there was and there wouldn’t be any shame in it! I’d look sexy as hell in white lace and if I did wear the dress there could be a garter involved.” I responded to the raven’s sharp look with a playfully suggestive wink.  “But I’ll only agree to wear the wedding dress when I get married to Levi if you agree to wear one when you marry my sister.”

The two toned blonde spluttered in response and my sister smirked again. “As interesting as it would be to see my ‘noble steed’ in a dress, I think I’d look better in it then he would Eren.”

“Even if he were to wear a dress no one would notice.” Levi said. “They’d be too busy wondering what he was doing out of the stables.”

Eight years ago, when we’d all first entered training, if you had asked me what I thought the future held I wouldn’t have been able to accurately predict a single thing. Not even five years ago, when the Trost fiasco had ended and we’d graduated and my ability to shift had just come to light, would I have been correct in the overwhelming majority of events. Me being the lover of Humanity’s Strongest. Myself, Mikasa, Armin and Jean all on the Special Operations Squad under him: the Elite of the Scouting Legion. Me and Jean being anything less than vindictively antagonistic to each other. Mikasa and Levi being able to tolerate the other’s presence, let alone get along to the degree they were now. Levi joining in right along with us on the rare occasion; just another one of the ‘brats’. Humanity standing on what very well could be the cusp of freedom.

If there was one thing I should have learned from the pattern of my life thus far it was that high points were followed by very long, very abrupt and very bloody drops from the aforementioned height. I should have been able to see what happened coming a mile off.

Hindsight being twenty/twenty? More like hindsight being omniscient. Where the hell were my instincts when I really needed them? If you guessed ‘not there’ you’d be right; that’s Rogue, you’re a great help!

Could I lay the sarcasm on a bit thicker?

Wall Maria had been repopulated in an astonishingly quick span of time after the Legion had managed to reclaim it from the Titans and Shiganshina was flourishing again. Vibrant and whole. Painfully full of memories not the same. It never _could_ be the same. The home where I’d grown up, the places where I’d played, the people I had known. All gone. Repurposed or outright destroyed. My parents…

A familiar touch against my shoulder jerked me out of my thoughts and I raised my head to meet his gaze. There was no pity there, only understanding, and that meant far more than any words ever could have. We raised our arms, wrists crossing in a brief motion which only the two of us understood. A sort of unique salute, serving both as a way to remember who we’d lost and what we’d been through and the motto we’d both come to live by.

No regrets.

Blood had salted these streets and rain had washed it away. Like new spring flowers pushing up through melting snow, humanity had reclaimed that which once had been lost. Life moved on.

The price paid was worth it when what we’d purchased was our future.

The crowned head of the Goddess Maria gazed down at us from where it had been painted on the rebuilt gate. As we came to a stop outside of it, waiting for the members of the Garrison to operate the massive winches necessary to raise it high enough for us to pass through civilians gathered to watch. The distain and rancor once shown was no longer present. Now that such great strides had been made towards a brighter world, in large part because of our members both living and fallen, the Scouting Legion was regarded with the respect we’d deserved all along.

The chains rattled. The heavy stone of the gate growled against the wall as it was dragged free of the earth. Clumps of mud and rock falling from the spines which jutted from the base.

“Remember what our mission is.” And all at once Levi had slipped into his well-worn role of Superior Officer. “We’re to travel to an old village approximately five miles to the north of here beyond Wall Maria. Once there we’re to split up; keep your flare guns on you and keep alert. There could still be Titans out there.”

“Yes, Captain!” Together, we thundered through the gate and out into the open world beyond. Open land. Open sky. For the first time we left safety with almost no fear of Titans. There were no recent footprints pressed into the damp earth. No distant sound of giant footsteps. No massive figures visible on the horizon.

I sat back in the saddle and turned my face up to the steadily rising sun. Feeling the now warm air caressing my cheeks as the clock marched steadily towards noon.

There wasn’t much left of the town, once we reached it, which had passed through the area, time and weathering the buildings had mostly fallen down. What little of them still stood were most certainly not safe to enter; a gust of wind in the wrong place and it would all come tumbling down like a child’s tower of block.

I tried to stay fairly clear of the lifting foundations of the buildings, not wanting to risk that the thudding of the horse’s hooves would bring any of them down. The shadows stretched odd patterns of charcoal-grey against the uneven ground. Bits of rotting wood and crumbling rock lay scattered about in the overgrowth of grass and flowers which caught at the hooves of my horse.

Well, ‘livable’ wouldn’t be the term I’d use to describe the place. Then again, I wouldn’t have described most of Wall Maria as ‘livable’ either when we’d first liberated if yet now it looked as if the breach had never happened. Give this place a year, maybe two, and if there really were no Titans left we’d have our first proper foothold outside the wall.

Rogue made a sudden shift and the hair along the back of my neck rose. I stiffened in my saddle, back going ramrod straight, eyes darting around the area. Seeking danger. Finding nothing. And then I heard it.

That same sound from the day the mark down Levi’s spine had turned black. I dug my heels into the sides of my horse, barreling forward at a full gallop in the direction from which the sound had come. Rounding one corner and then another and tearing out into what would have once been the town square.

He’d fallen from his horse and lay half curled on the ground, his body quaking. Even without having to hear the whimpers and groans which were coming from him I could tell that he was in an intolerable amount of pain. It was obvious by the fact that he allowed himself to come into prolonged contact with the muddy ground.

I didn’t wait for my mount to slow down, leaping from its back and running to its side. Falling to my knees and reaching out to check him over for injuries. Opening my mouth to speak.

I didn’t get the chance.

The moment I touched him everything around me went black and cold. A powerful force jerking on my spine roughly from somewhere behind my navel. The sensation similar to the one caused by my ability to jump long distances in seconds but a hundred times worse. As if a massive hand was crushing me for all that it was worth. Trying to force my body through the small hole that it had reached through. Tugging. Tugging. And then succeeding.

We landed in a heap on the wet ground of a cemetery in the center of a circle of masked men in black. A pall of cold mist hung heavy over the old headstones which stuck up at odd angles. Rogue snarled and pressed himself close to the surface, my hackles on end, and I raised my head. Instinctually coiling my body around the smaller raven’s still quaking form. Meeting the slitted gaze of some sort of monster.

The thing opened its lipless mouth and spoke words in a high pitched susurrus in a language I didn’t understand. –“Kill the extra!” –

A blinding flash of sickly green collided with my chest and a painful numbness tore through my body, dragging me down into black.

 


	2. Chapter 2

“No!” I didn’t know what I was seeing, no precisely, but I didn’t have to. It wasn’t full of blood or breaking bones or gnashing teeth; there were no bullets or arrows or blades but there didn’t need to be. The life of a soldier of the Scouting Legion, living tooth and claw by the moment while on expeditions beyond the walls, had taught me many lessons as had my time growing up in the Underground below Sina. Chief among those lessons how to cultivate an instinctual knowledge of when one saw death. Of exactly what dying looked like. And I knew, as Eren’s form was overwhelmed by vibrant light, that for the third time in my life I’d lost everything.

And that this time there’d be no rebuilding.

The acidic green vanished near as swift as it had come and took the color from his eyes-the gentle mix of blue and green which had always been enough to make me feel like I was staring out over the ocean even though I’d never been there-with it when it went. For me it was as if time had slowed, dragging out the worst moment of my life into eternity as he collapsed. Sagging to the side of a haunting grace and landing on his back in the overgrown grass and fallen leaves with a thud.

Death had always been with us, the third member of our relationship which both tied us together and maintained that hairsbreadth distance which kept us from collapsing into each other, and we’d always known it was there. There in every breath. Every touch. Every glance. A pair of freaks. A cruel world. A forbidden love.

But before that moment it had never been real. Not to me. Not to him. Not really.

How could it not have been, when my responsibility to Humanity as a soldier was to put him down if he ever lost control? Simple. That responsibility had ceased to matter to me a long time ago. I’d tried to keep him at bay and failed. He wasn’t the first to get passed my walls, far from it, but he was the first to make it to my heart.

The walls I’d locked it behind had fared as well against Eren as Wall Maria had against the Colossal. Like the Armored Titan, he’d barreled through the inner gate but rather than disappearing he’d made himself at home. Had claimed me as his boyfriend on top of his Captain and Superior as his Titan had claimed me as his mate-he never admitted it but Rogue was much less tight lipped (I know Titans don’t have lips; that’s not the point) about matters; I knew-and I knew that even if he one day went berserk I’d be in no danger.

I’d planned to perch on his shoulder and guard his nape as he tore down the walls which had been nothing but a prison to us both. To watch the wreckage of mankind’s fallen kingdom burn as it disappeared beyond the horizon as we made our way towards a new life in the land so wrongly named Paradis. But now that could never be because Eren, like everything else I’d ever dared to let matter to me, had been taken in the blink of an eye.

A light. A shitty fucking light was all it took for some ugly fuck to slaughter my Titan as if he were some animal.

Rage. My vision was overlain with a pall of red, the hazy color like the spread of blood through water, barely discernable in the darkness and shadow of where we’d ended up; what I now realized was a graveyard. I hadn’t felt like this in too long. Far too long. It had been anger, hot and sharp but controllable, that I’d felt after that bitch had leveled my squad but this…I hadn’t felt this since that horrible night when I’d lost my family in the driving rain.

A serpent of fire had formed a nest of coals in my chest and now ran through my veins. Licking across my skin. Searching for a point of escape. My hands shook. The craving to kill, to take my revenge in the most brutal way that I could, coated my tongue with the iron taste of blood. Magick crackling around me like a static charge. But as much as I wanted to leap at the man responsible for the murder of my brat and rip out his heart with my teeth I couldn.t

Couldn’t just leave Eren lying there. The ground was wet and dirty. He’d get cold. I had to take care of him before I did anything else.

I fumbled with the claps of the Legion cloak I still wore around my neck then removed my jacket, folding it up and placing it beneath his head and then covering him with the rain scaled green fabric.  I wouldn’t let the skull-mask bastards or snake face look at him. They didn’t deserve to.

The urge to take his wings so that I’d still have something of him with me was almost overwhelming but, somehow, I restrained it. ‘An unhealthy coping mechanism’ was what Eren had called it when he’d discovered the drawer full of them that I’d kept in my office. Explaining to him that they were reminders of the blood on my hands, of the deaths I was responsible for, had only made him more concerned. After a reprimand made with the sort of seriousness I hadn’t thought brats like him capable of, he’d kindled a fire and we’d spent that night burning those wings. Coming to terms. Letting go.

He wouldn’t want me to fall back into that pattern because of him.

Snake face was talking again. Babbling away in that stupid language I’d never heard before and couldn’t comprehend. Walking around as he did so and making grand gestures which had the others all nodding stupidly. Apparently he liked to listen to himself talk, a lot like that blonde fuck Erwin had. Was tall like Erwin too. All he needed was a pair of eyebrows large enough to have their own gravitational pull and he’d be an uglier paler version of my former Commander.

“Stop talking! I can’t understand you!” I snarled it like a rabid cur backed into a corner. Felt like one too. On the edge of losing my mind. Falling into a sea of red insanity and never coming out again. Drowning in heady revenge until I was no less mindless than the Titans I’d spent so long fighting. If it saw to it none of them got away with taking Eren from me, I didn’t have a problem sacrificing my humanity.

Spying the big ass snake slithering around at the pale bastard’s feet I hissed a ragged “ _I almost feel sorry for you, being stuck with fuck face, but at the moment I can’t draw up the sympathy. Guess I’m not in a charitable mood.”_

That made him stop and turn to face me, expression less than pleased. There was a stick in his hands. More like a twig, really. A length of wood so white it could easily have been bone. “ _That’s no way to speak to your father, or to my dear Nagini.”_

 _“Maybe I should **kill** your ‘dear Nagini’!” _ I was too wrapped up in my anger to find a proper amount of shock in what he’d suggested. I could process information after I was through with him. “ _A fucking snake can’t be worth nearly as much as my **boyfriend** was but it’ll at least be a start at making us even!”_

 _“You can have another ‘boyfriend’, if you must.”_ Flippant and cold. Was this bastard for real? Did he not realize what a fucking relationship was? Eren was my _partner_ not a God damned pet! “ _A proper one, this time. Not some filthy Muggle from whatever hole the Ministry threw you into fifteen years ago.”_

Filthy? “ _Don’t you dare call him filthy! You don’t even have a right to **talk about him**!”_

_“You’ll have plenty of choices.”_

_“ **I was in love with him you snake-faced fucking bastard!”**_

‘Love’ was a word I shouldn’t have used around the man; he whipped around and pointed his stick at me and snarled another word I didn’t know.

-“Crucio!”-

The light was red this time and when it collided with my chest pain exploded through my body. It felt as if every fiver of my being had been set of fire and I collapsed backwards into the mud. Writhing in the dirt. Clawing at my skin and screaming. Unable to stop myself or even recognize the sound I was producing as my voice or even anything human yet knowing it had to be.

And then the pain cut off and I heard a sound I recognized immediately. One that had, for most of my life, been a source of fear. Now all it did was kindle a relief so strong it was almost enough to push the lingering effects of whatever the shitting hell had just been done to me away.

A Titan cry.

Shouting in their foreign language erupted around me as I forced my eyes open. My vision was blurred but I could still make out the multicolored flashes of light flying overhead as well as the massive hand reaching down towards me. Thick, powerful fingers closed around my shaking form and lifted me from the ground.

Rogue roared, the sound deafening and feral, and took off running at a full sprint. The fifteen meter’s speed more than enough to outstrip a horse at full gallop.

Controlling my body was difficult, even the slightest of motions sending renewed waves of pain ripping through my raw nerves and dragging out fresh whimpers. Faintly glowing golden eyes shifted downwards to look at me and he let out a warble of concern.

“I’m alright, brat.” Alive. Eren was alive! Thank Maria, Rose and Sina! My rage evaporated, transforming into elation, and my head spun wildly in the aftermath of being yanked so suddenly across both extremes of the emotional scale. “It’s good to see you, Eren.”

Rogue’s ears flicked back and he returned his eyes to what lay ahead of us. I likewise resumed struggling to sit up and then stand and, finally, managed to make it to my feet.

Steadying myself against one of the massive fingers I peered between them out at the world around us. We were running down the slope of a hill, headed towards the sprawl of a small town. The buildings, were of different make then anything I’d ever seen and the light from their windows wasn’t caused by candles oil lanterns or fires in a hearth.

Fuck, had we ended up in Marley?

Didn’t Marleyan’s speak the same language as us?

Wouldn’t they have thrown people of the same abilities as Eren and I at the Walls along with the Shifters if they’d had them?

A streak of black smoke shot over Eren’s shoulder, joined by others in quick succession. Circling around like soldiers on gear or giant predatory birds. Flinging more bright light at us, the streaks gouging slashes into flesh and raising bruises and boils, veiling the Titan’s form in thunder and steam.

Rogue roared again and swiped the air with his free hand, knocking one out of the air, and snapped his jaws at another. A fine mist of blood sprayed me with ruby droplets as a limb, a leg or an arm I couldn’t tell, spun away and the black smoke spiraled to the ground like a shot crow.

We hit the bottom of the hill and, within a few more paces, were in the town. Giant feet punched holes into the cobbled streets, crushing the pipes and wires which lay beneath the road. Rogue grunted in confusion and pain, steam rising from where the jagged stone had punctured thick skin. Water spurted up from the pipes as the lights in some of the nearest houses went out.

It was late enough out where we’d ended up that no one was outside which was probably a good thing, but the poor bastards would be waking up to a torn-to-hell street the next morning and probably a lot of expensive repairs.

After the stone gave way twice under Rogue’s weight the Titan just gave up on attempting to step out of the hole and tore it wider. Still swatting at the dark smoke as if they were flies.

Another ten minutes later we were out of the town and the damned vultures were still swarming like angered hornets. From the amount of healing the brat had had to do I knew, even with the endurance and control he’d gained over the years, I knew he couldn’t hold out much longer.

“Eren!” He snapped at the bastards again and looked down at me. “We’re not going to shake them! You have to pop!”

There wasn’t time for him to release his Shift and I didn’t know if he could use any of his other abilities while in Titan form but we had to try. I knew we had no choice, and from the deep guttural grumble Rogue released he was aware of it too.

Mindful not to crush me while doing so, he closed the hand he held me in into a fist and put on an extra burst of speed. Twisting on the spot a moment later. I couldn’t see outside of the protective cage of flesh and bone but the sickening jerk which settled in moments later made it clear that our desperate Hail Mary had worked.

But now we had a new problem.

Water, tepid cold and foul tasting, spewed in from between the Titan’s fingers. Faster and faster as they loosened, immediately soaking me through. We’d ended up in water and had started to sink, fuck!

Still stiff and suffering from wracking pain I slipped between Rogue’s ring and middle fingers. The Titan was sinking, Eren’s form visible through the murk stuck half-way out of the fifteen meter’s neck.

The gear around my waist was dragging me down towards the silt and rock which formed the bottom. Shafts of light pierced down from the surface. My chest burned, the need for air impossible to ignore.

Pushing the pain aside I swam down towards Eren, hacking at Rogue’s nape with one of my blades and pulling him free. Cutting the straps around his waist and then my own and then began the struggle towards the surface.

It felt like a horse was sitting on my chest. My head felt on the verge of splitting open. Blackness was starting to converge on my vision. Moving my arms and legs was difficult. The surface so far away. Getting further. I was the one sinking now.

A warm grip closed around my wrist and yanked me upwards. Arms winding around me, hooking behind my shoulders and pulling me back against his chest. I gasped for air and spat out water when my head broke the surface, lungs and throat red raw and blinded by the water which ran from my fringe.

“Levi.” Eren kicked calmly through the water and holding me against his chest to keep us both afloat. “Levi, are you alright?”

“Fine.” It sounded like someone had attacked my throat with sand paper. The sound Eren made in response made it obvious, without my having to see him, that he wasn’t convinced. “I thought you were dead, brat.”

For a moment there was only the gentle splashing of water as Eren swam, the clanging of a far off bell and trundle of what sounded vaguely like cart wheels. Then he spoke. “I might have been.” Eren said. “But it’s not the first time; I think I died in Stohess too. I got caught in the collapse of the tunnel we tried to lure Annie into and a wooden beam punctured my heart.” A few seconds further paddling the bank of the river we’d almost drowned in came into view. “Did you really think I’d leave you, Chibi?”

The warm affection in his voice was a death blow to my composure and I choked around a sob. Burying my face in the crook of his neck once the water grew shallow enough for my giant of a boyfriend (to think he hadn’t been all that much taller than I was, back before he’d hit that goddamned growth spurt) to stand; I allowed him to carry me up onto shore and set me down on my feet.

Mud. Marvelous. Ignoring the spark of OCD in the back of my mind and shivering despite the relative warmth of the night I pressed myself close against him. Breathing in the scent of Eren which persisted beneath the cloying stench of mud and the swill of water which filled the river.

I cried and he held me until I’d released enough of my emotions that they no longer licked dangerously at the edge of my control; threatening to spill over and catch light into an uncontrollable blaze. When silence fell again the brunet didn’t step away, rumbling a comforting purr from the depths of his chest, and together we listened to the rumble of those wheels.

Why were there so many carts out so late?

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” Eren said. “That snake man must have been the one who brought us here. The one who was hurting you.” He kept his growl low but it still slipped out, deep and protective, and I smiled. The furnace-like heat of his body chased the chill of the river away, though we were both still dripping wet.

“Is it Marley?” I already knew it wasn’t but needed him to confirm.

Eren shook his head. “No. Marley looks different than the walls but it doesn’t look like this.” He said. “If we’re going to figure out where we’ve ended up we’re going to have to climb up that wall,” he indicated the ten foot stone wall topped in a wrought iron railing, “and take a look around.” Those warm seeking  fingers slipped beneath what little remained of my clothing-a ruined shirt-and rubbed away the lingering pain from the largest muscles in my body. “Can you climb, or should I-?”

“Don’t shift.” I cut him off, reluctantly detaching myself and starting towards the wall. “Not anymore tonight, because I don’t want you to run out of energy and end up having to sleep for a week. Not anymore for the next indefinite frame of time. Not until we know where in the shitting fuck we are and how they’ll react to a Titan.”

I grabbed the rock wall-oddly rough along the edges; my nails scraped against them with a sickening rattle-and hoisted myself onto it. Eren was just behind. We made it to the top at almost the same time and went wide eyed at the sight that met us, almost falling back down onto the mud bank in utter shock.

“Maria.” Eren breathed, the lights of the towering buildings reflecting silver-glazed in his eyes. “What _is_ this place?”

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so here's a bit of an explanation of the head canons which are informing the reason things may be a bit OC. Some of it is accurate to them and some of it is just stuff I've inferred.  
> Eren - Protective, kind, warm and very protective of the people he cares about. Because of always being a step behind Mikasa and Armin he struggles somewhat with self-esteem and self worth; this became worse after what happened with Reiss and Historia, though his relationship with Levi helped repair a large portion of this. He still carries a lot of guilt over the deaths of his parents and those caused by the Coordinate being stolen and considers himself responsible for the deaths of the former special operations squad. He considers himself a monster in many respects, though he's become closer with his Titan over they years  
> Levi - He tries to keep others at bay and not show it to prevent himself from feeling the inevitable loss of those around him more acutely than he has to he's actually very caring and experiences strong emotions. Aware of what he can be capable of when he loses control of those emotions he does what he can to keep them in check. He has an unhealthy tendency to hoard guilt and views himself as responsible for the deaths of his former squad for not being there to help them fight. Because Eren is so close to him he's dependent on him emotionally to various degrees in a number of ways. His obsession with cleanliness is at the fault of OCD stemming from his time in the underground.


End file.
